


Illuminated

by JaysAndRavens



Category: OneShot (Video Game)
Genre: Other, Reader is gender neutral, probably slowburn, reader is birdfolk, sorry lol, uhhhh stronk plight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27136318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaysAndRavens/pseuds/JaysAndRavens
Summary: Moving to the Refuge was the last thing you wanted to do. Leaving your whole family behind... Everything you knew... But if it meant your loved ones could eat, it was a risk you were willing to take. Little did you know, you'd soon find yourself wrapped up in something infinitely bigger than yourself, all because of your rather unfortunate coworker.
Relationships: Plight | Lamplighter/The Player (OneShot - Video Game), Silver/Kip Silverpoint
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bunnysharks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bunnysharks/gifts).



> Plight X Reader because I'm sad and alone bABEY!!!
> 
> This is fic is inspired by and gifted to Bunnysharks! Thank you for being such a source of creative inspiration and general joy for me via your work! Keep on being awesome bro.
> 
> Now without further adieu please enjoy however many chapters of Plight falling in love with a bird

The Glen was underwater.

Well, not entirely. At least, not yet, anyway.

It was getting close though, which is precisely what lead me to be squashed inside a rusting little boat one morning, rucksack atop my back and tears glinting in my eyes, threatening to drop down into the infinitely larger body of water below. Ma did her best to settle me - "if you rock the boat too much, you'll tip!" - while Reed bounced about on the shore, quite oblivious to everything, as always.

I reached out to brush her cheek, my feathered arm brushing softly against her skin.  
"Be good to Ma while I'm away." I told her. She hummed something inaudible and ran off to inspect a particularly interesting patch of moss on a nearby tree. I sighed, shooting her a smile whilst her back was turned.

"You sure you've got everything?" Ma touched my shoulder lightly, urging me to sit back down in the boat for stability's sake. I did so, the cool iron chilling my skin through my cloak. I nodded.  
"I think so."  
"Good, because we can't afford to send it up to you if you if you leave something behind."  
"There isn't much to take anyways..."

We sat in pregnant silence for a moment, before the rowbot whirred into motion. I was grateful for its shrill little voice for breaking the tension at the very least, even if it was a knell about to rip me away from everything I knew.

"[Are we ready to depart?]"  
"I guess so." I muttered, leaping up at the last second as the boat began to pull away. I wrapped my arms tightly around Ma's neck, trying to remember her scent and the feel of her feathers.

"Make me proud, y/n." She muttered, prying me away from her. "And for God's Sake's sit down!" I forced a laugh as I complied, watching her form until it was a pale emerald dot almost indistinguishable from the mass of chartreuse that was the Glen. I don't know for how long I watched my home receed into oblivion, but it was long enough for me to forget there was another person on board.

"[You are crying.]" The rowbot announced. I jumped and turned to face it.  
"Y-yeah. Sorry..."  
"[It is okay.]" 

We sat in silence for a minute more.

"[I am afraid I cannot help. It is not within my programming to assist you. I hope you understand.]" I smiled weakly.  
"It is okay." I echoed back.

Still, the lifeless nature of the bot made my journey long and lonesome on my behalf. I spent hours just gazing out at the infinite stretch of blue all around, thinking about everything I'd left behind at the shore. My home, my Ma, Reed. My whole world existed on that one green blob, and now I was being thrown into something completely different. It was nobody's fault; with the Glen slowly being swallowed by the rising sea, and fishing getting less sustainable by the day, I didn't have much choice but to move and find work. The only other option was to let my family starve.

If Pa were still around, he'd have know what to do. By that I mean he probably would've just gone up to the Refuge himself, but he'd do it with a smile on his face, knowing that providing for his family was worth any amount of toil and discomfort. I, however, was not so selfless, despite what Ma always said. I was scared, and I was reluctant. But it was out of my hands. Perhaps that was a good thing. If I had gotten a choice, would I have agreed to it? 

Such ruminations were pushed aside by the arrival of a soft pink glow on the horizon. Even my apprehension at what was to come couldn't nullify the fact that the Refuge was a strikingly beautiful place. I'd only ever seen it in pictures, but it was somehow even more vibrant in reality. After a lifetime of green and blue, that cherry stain in my vision was... Somehow pleasant. I very briefly forgot how much I was supposed to hate the place.

Within a few minutes, we had bumped up unceremoniously to the shore, the rowbot beeping softly as we did so.  
"[We have arrived. You may now depart. Thank you for your service. Colon - closed bracket.]" I furrowed my brow at the robot's strange attempt at a verbal emoticon before stepping unsteadily onto the pink tinted concrete. Well, here I was... The Refuge. The Center of the Entire World.

It was a garbage dump. It was a complete and utter garbage dump.

Sure, it was pretty from far away - enough to even make me hate it a little less - but as I bustled through the crowded streets, desperately scanning the sky-high buildings for any signs of the Administration Office, I realised just what a nightmare this was going to be. I had to leave my home. I had to leave it for this. I traded vast green planes and twisting vine psuedo-sculptures for grey, pink, grey, pink, square, square, s.. squares?

I paused, gazing down the alleyway to my right. In the shadows lay a swarming mass of... Squares. Not square like the square buildings or square street corners... Black and pink and white squares all writhing in unison as though... Tortured by something. Why did it look as though they were alive..? 

I pushed my way out of the crowd and into the pocket of somewhat dank calm that was the alleyway. I trotted forward slowly, my talons scraping uncomfortable against the roughest, hardest ground I'd ever walked on, my hand outstretched to the mass of glitching shapes.

What the hell were those th--

"D-DON'T TOUCH THOSE!"

The sudden force of impact sent me tumbling back into the alley wall. I tried to ignore the feeling of some foul-smelling Refuge grime smearing against my back as I turned to locate whoever it was who has suddenly pounced on me from nowhere.

It was a tall man, lurking in the shadows the opposite side of the alleyway to the squares. He had his back pressed against the wall as though they'd jump on him at any second, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He slowly edged away from them until his shoulder bumped lightly against mine. He whipped around, apparently having forgotten I was there.

"Y-you're not-- I mean you could've-- what the HELL were you thinking!?" He babbled some incoherent nonsense at me before grabbing my hand, pulling me back into the fray of the street before I could answer. I squeaked in protest, but he was strong enough to pull me along as though I weighed no more than one of the feathers on my head. For a moment I feared I'd managed to get myself kidnapped within my first half an hour of landing at the Refuge, but the man quickly pulled me into another alleyway a short walk down the street and released me, hurling around to face me as soon as we were out of the ocean of bodies.

"What the hell were you doing!?" He repeated. I blinked a few times and replied.  
"I was looking for the Administration Building."  
"W-well what, you were hoping to find them in the hospital you were inevitably gonna end up in after you touched those things!?" He seemed angry, but as loud as his voice was, it wasn't exactly threatening. I couldn't pin it down exactly, but he wasn't the most intimidating man I'd ever met, even if he towered over me by quite a bit.

"Oh yeah! What are those things exactly? They're so weird looking... Are they alive?"

The man fixed me with a disbelieving stare.  
"You-- what? How can you not know what those things are?" I shuffled anxiously.

"Sorry... I only just got here. I don't know much about the city... I'm actually kind of lost! Could you maybe show me the way to the Administration Office?"

A few more seconds of bewildered staring ensued, the man regarding me with the countenance of a frustrated babysitter who'd just been tasked with minding the most destructive being known to man. Eventually, his voice graced him once again, and he blinked away the more obvious traces of his befuddlement.

"Fine," He sighed, turning to head deeper into the alley. "Just don't... Don't touch anymore squares  
if you see em... Jeez... Did you not have them back in the Glen? I thought they were everywhere now..."

I gazed around at the high walls, murals of grime and graffiti adorning each one.  
"I mean... Sort of? We had something similar, but... They weren't as violent. They weren't that colour either, so I guess I thought they were something different." The man sighed as though the prospect of talking to someone as airheaded as me was a concept painful to even entertain. I pouted, though it didn't matter much considering his back was turned.

"What did you say your name was?" He eventually asked.  
"Y/n." I replied. He nodded slightly.  
"Folks call me Plight."  
"Nice to meet you Plight."

He rubbed the back of his neck as we continued.  
"So you're new here... Did you come from the Glen?"  
"Mhm. I need work. Family's gotta eat somehow..."  
"Yeesh, that's rough. They're sending a kid out? I mean, I knew it was bad, but--"  
"I'm not a kid!" I protested, my feathers fluffing up.  
"Y-you're... Not?"  
"No! I'm like, 24!"  
"Oh... M-my bad."

We walked in unsettled silence for a while as I smoothed my green feathers back down.

"You... You don't have a dad who can take care of that? I mean, the hours the Office offers are sorta harsh no matter what job they give you, I'm not sure if it's good for someone as young as you to be thrown into it all of a sudden. You'd make a lot more cash if you did odd jobs first, worked your way up the ladder. Maybe the factories could be a sorta end goal. God knows you can't get out of a contract with these bastards."

"That would take too long. My family needs help now..." I worried at the feathers on my arms. "Besides, I'm way too underqualified to work my way up, even if time wasn't so tight. I can't even read or write; working odd jobs would be fine, but making the step up towards the factories would be harder. If I work here for the rest of my life, I'll probably have to be grateful. It's stability, at least."

"I hear ya... Still, don't let em push ya round too much, okay?"

"Okay." 

What a weird guy... He talked as though he was my senior, but he couldn't have been more than two years older than I was. Realising that made me pity him a little, considering what he'd said about the taxing work hours. If I was too young to put up with them, wasn't he? I brushed it aside as we finally rounded a bend that lead us out of the alleys. Ahead of us was a towering building nestled between a couple of apartment complexes. It looked in vastly better state than the majority of the other Refuge buildings, shiny and welcoming in a cold, intimidating sort of way. 

"Here we are." Plight said unenthusiastically. "Enjoy working for a buncha leaches the rest of your life. But hey, 'stability'..." He turned to leave back through the alleys, but I called out to him before the shadows swallowed him up completely.

"Thank you for helping me! I-I appreciate it!" He hesitated a moment before nodding politely and rounding the corner.

I turned towards the building again. Okay, I thought, time to save my family. However gruesome the Refuge seemed right now, I'm sure I'd get used to it with time. It would never match the beauty of my homeland, but maybe - somehow - I could make it. You're doing this for them, I told myself. For everyone, and everything, you love.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAA OKAY SO I DIDNT FORGET ABOUT THIS STORY ISTG
> 
> I would say I've been busy with finals and then Christmas but like,, that's a lame excuse lmao.
> 
> To make up for it, I drew a little illustration ( click here to see it https://imgur.com/a/PnxsgT7 ) to go with this chapter! The reader is meant to be gender neutral so you guys can project onto them, but when I gave them a flat chest and stuff and made them short, they looked kinda young... So I added more feminine features to make it look less yiKes. Still, feel free to headcannon them as whatever gender you'd like! You can take the art as non canon if you want :)

Lamplighting? I mean, really?

Sure, the fact I couldn't read or write meant a lot of jobs were off the table, but it's not like it would take forever to teach me something basic... Maybe I could wait tables, or... I don't know, be a paperboy? Practically anything sounded better than lugging around lanterns full of reeking phosphor all day.

That was just another thing that made me hate The Refuge. Red phosphor was the most potent sort, and it was such a stark contrast to the earthy tint of the green phosphor back home. This kind was acidic and pervasive, scraping the inside of your nose and throat like sandpaper. I heard there was gas vents in the Barrens where they procured the ingredients for their living lamps, but even that must've been heaven compared to this.

Not to mention the equipment they gave me was heavy as all hell. Birdfolk were usually smaller in stature compared to object-heads and humans, so wasn't it a little cruel giving me something this bulky?

I sighed to myself as a pulled out the small, worn map they'd given me. My boss - a whip-thin, cold looking man - had marked off all my spots in red for me. It was sort of hard to figure out where I was in relation to them, and the fact I couldn't read the road names only added to that. I'd found the first one okay, but there were several all the way across the map from me, and I kept coming across dead ends as I tried to get to them. The first time, I'd been happy enough to just retrace my steps and try a new route, but by the fourth I was starting to consider just scaling the wall and hoping the path continued on the other side.

I set down the jars of phosphor I was carrying to look at the map more carefully. I took out a pen from my pocket and marked down a little X where I was, indicating this way was also blocked. I sighed and put the stupid thing away, resigned to the fact it likely wasn't going to help me much right now.

I leaned back against the wall, gazing upwards to the very top. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to climb it... Right?

No, come on, don't be stupid, I told myself. If I broke any of the lamps, I'd be in serious trouble. Besides, maybe the path didn't even continue on the other side, maybe it was just ocean or, like, a dumpster fire!

Just then, I had an idea. I slipped the long black pole from behind my back and took the lamp of the end. I set it down carefully on the concrete ground and hoisted the pole up. If I could poke it oner the wall, I'd be able to see if there was solid ground on the other side. The only risk was if it really was a dumpster fire, I was about to melt my pole, but judging by the lack of smoke, I thought it was a good enough risk to take.

It took a bit of maneuvering to get the pole over the wall, but it was long enough to reach the ground on the other side. And there was ground, I could feel it scrape across the bottom of the pole as I moved it. Satisfied, I tried to swing the pole back over, only to hit something the other side of the wall in the process. That something gave a grunt of alarm, causing me to yank the pole back over quickly. I backed away from the wall, hoping whatever I'd disturbed couldn't scale walls or - worse - plow right through. It was quite for a moment, and I was about to back away, when a pair of violently magenta eyes pierced mine from the top of the wall.

The man hoisted himself up a little further, and only then did I recognise him as the man I'd met the other day in the alleys.

"Y-y/n, right?" He muttered, still just staring at me. I nodded slowly and blinked at him.

"And you're name is... Uh..." I tapped my pole against the ground absentmindedly. "I forgot..." I offered him a meek smile.

He sighed.  
"It's Plight." He corrected, disappearing for a second behind the wall. When he reappeared, he'd hoisted himself all the way up to the point he was sitting on the top of the structure, looking down at me. If he hadn't looked tall before, he definitely did now.

"Mind telling me why you're sticking your pole over walls all of a sudden? How'd you even get one of those anyway?" He asked.

"I'm a Lamplighter!" I beamed. As much as I hated my job, it was technically my first one, and just securing it was cause for some pride, right?

He looked at me incredulously.  
"... Right." He said. With a grunt of effort, he jumped down, coming face to face with me at the dead end.

"So why are you trying to pole vault all of a sudden? Last I checked your job was to... Yknow, light lamps." 

"Oh, well... I kinda... keep getting lost. This is the fourth dead end I've come to and I thought, hey, let's just fucking jump the thing, that'll be fine. I wasn't counting on whacking you in the process, sorry." He made a sound that sounded sort of like a chuckle before heading off down the alley the way I'd come. I cast one last look at the wall before following him.

"Where's your next stop?" He asked. I took out my map and handed it to him. He sighed slightly.

"Okay, I'll show you how to get there. Shit's always collapsing cause of those square things, so roads'll close with no warning a lot. It's best to have some sorta app or something to make sure you know about stuff like that." He explained as we wound through the maze of purple walls.

"App?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Yeah, like, on your phone."

"Oh! Like mobile phones! I don't have one of those yet! Should I get one, now I'm living here?" 

Plight was silent a moment, processing what I said.

"I mean... Yeah. You can't really survive in the Refuge without technology. Do you not have phones in the Glen?" He cast me a curious look over his shoulder.

"Nope, not really! We don't really need them; the Glen's not big. If you need to tell someone something fast you can just... Go tell them. If you can't get to them, you can send a robot. They're pretty friendly and'll deviate from their task if they're not busy. We even have a few tame ones that'll listen to you no matter what! It's pretty neat."

Plight made an appreciative noise.

"Neat. Hardly none of the robots here are all that tame. Shit's falling apart too quick for anyone to care. We're the 'Center of the Entire World', but we're also the center of decay. Even if we hold it back better than places like the Glen, the only tame robots here were tamed before the sun went out." He explained. I nodded slowly, though again, he couldn't see me with his back turned.

"Anyway, you can get a phone from anywhere that sells tech. They're not that expensive if you get an older model." 

We came to a stop as he said that, and before me was a long boulevard with Street Lamps dotting it periodically, throwing pink light down upon the shoppers hurrying up and down the street. 

"Here ya go. Yknow, you should thank me for showing you here on my day off. I only get a few every month." He laughed softly. I tilted my head at him.

"Day off? What do you do?" I could picture him as some sort of mechanic or something, since he was evidently pretty strong. Man could lift himself over walls like it was nothing, but maybe that was just because he was almost as tall as they were.

"Oh, uh, I'm a Lamplighter, same as you." He said. My feathers fluffed up.

"Really!? Oh cool! Does that mean we'll work together?" A worried look crossed his face as though that idea wasn't as appealing to him as it was to me.

"Maybe." He shrugged. I smiled at him.

"Well, I hope so! It'll be nice to see a familiar face."

"I literally met you yesterday, kid." He drawled

"I'm not a kid! You can't be that much older than I am!" I retorted.

"True, but you're just so tiny." He smiled and bent down a little to prove his point.

"It's not my fault you're built like a fricking Lamppost yourself!" I barked. He gave a warm laugh, richer than before, and nudged me into the street.

"Just do your job." He muttered with a smile as he turned back into the alleyway. 

I stuck my tongue out at his retreating form, thinking better of it too late. Damn, I really did act childish sometimes. I turned to the street with new resolve and headed for the lamppost closest to me. Alright, I thought, time to get to work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhh so-- two chapters in one day cause I'm nice ALSO the last chapter and this one are both rlly short so I thought you guys deserved it. If the quality feels like it's dropping, I'm really sorry heh ^^; there's actually like, super major plot in the future so things wont be boring forever. We just need some filler chapters to establish their relationship yaknow? Also I'm writing this at 3am so that also may be why... aNyway i didn't reeeallly proof read this but enjoy!! (*nervously exits*)

My second day on the job was slightly more tolerable than the first. First of all, I knew the basics of where my stops were situated (providing the roads stayed as they were for the next few weeks at least), meaning I was already at my second one within the first forty-five minutes of my day. Second of all, I was no longer alone.

I had been lifting a full lantern up to the top of a large lamppost when a voice sounded behind me. In my alarm, the lamp has slipped from the hooked end of the pole, coming dangerously close to the ground before a large hand scooped it up for me. I glanced up and saw Plight hook the lamp on to his own pole and set it in place. I smiled sheepishly at the gesture.

"Thanks for that." I said shyly.

“No problem.” He responded. The acute neon glow washed steadily over us in a way that still hurt my eyes. As pretty as the blushed atmosphere was, it wasn't something I was really all that used to, the cherry cascades were somewhat harsh against my eyes, like a permanent reminder that I wasn't bred for this place in the slightest.

“So, do we like, go to the same places as each other or what?” I asked, blinking at the brilliance radiating from the lamppost. The structure itself had four small offshoots of metal branching from the main pole for four different lamps to hang off of. I’d noticed larger areas had posts like these, probably to allow for a brighter light source. Plight shook his head slightly.

“No, only the big ones like this one. It’s better for two people to do ‘em since you can only carry so many lamps at once, and it’ll save time not to use ‘em all up at one stop.” He explained. I nodded happily.

“Neato! I guess we’ll be seeing more of each other then!” Plight gave no response, finishing his task much quicker than me and preparing to head off to his next stop. I waved to him as he left, and he mumbled a goodbye over his shoulder.

It wasn’t long until I ran into him again. We had five big stops on our schedules everyday. One in the square, one on the boulevard, one near the apartments, one near the cafe, and one deep in the alleys. 

I pushed my way through the throng of people to the end of the boulevard, muttering apologies as I went. There were so many people concentrated in such a small space; it was so unlike the open plains of the Glen. It felt horribly claustrophobic, but I pushed through as politely as I could to the other end, happy - yet not surprised - to see Plight already there. 

“Heya!” I greeted him, finally freeing myself from the current of bodies. I guess everyone here must be working pretty intense jobs; almost everyone was dressed formally and almost everyone was in a rush. Plight muttered something under his breath. “Huh?” I asked, hooking the first jar of glowing liquid onto the five-lamp lamppost.

“Oh, uh,” Plight scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “I was just wondering how you can be so perky all the time… I mean, you hate it here, you had to leave your family, they got you working this shitty job… It doesn’t really make sense to me y’know?” I looked down for a moment.

“Well,” I began. “I guess… I’m just happy to have what I do. I mean, at least I /have/ a family to leave, at least I /have/ a place to go when my home starts to fall apart. At least I /have/ a job I can do that pays kinda sorta well... A lot of people don’t have any of that. Hey, at least I didn't die my first day here, which is all thanks to you by the way!” I finished, smiling up at him. He nudged his cap down over his face a little more.

“D-don’t mention it.”

A few moments of silence passed as we worked, unhooking empty jars from above us and replacing them with full ones. The stench of red phosphor would creep out the most then, and it took all I had not to physically recoil from the miasmic smell of it. Finally, Plight spoke again, graciously distracting me from the smell.

“Y’know, you’re really positive, y/n… Makes me think you’ll hate working with someone like me.” He laughed. 

“What!? No way! You’re so cool!” I beamed. He flushed a little and finished hanging up the last lamp.

“R-really? What makes you say that?”

“Well, uh, you’re super tall!” I offered. It was true - he had to be six foot at least! He laughed again, the proper way, the way that was warm enough to - very slightly - remind me of the sun. Yeah, this guy was super cool...

Suddenly, I heard a chorus of shouts from behind me. I swiveled to see a cluster of children running up to us - or, rather - running up to Plight. He leant his pole against a nearby railing and smiled down at them.

“Mr. Lamplighter!” A few of them greeted him. 

“You’re back!” A short girl at the front beamed. She had long golden hair and big, circular glasses. Plight nodded and patted her head softly.

“Mhm. My days off are all gone.” He explained with a small smile, though the way he said it betrayed tiredness his face alone could not. I felt a twinge of both sympathy and fear. Only having a few days off per month? After never really working a day in my life, could I handle that? Even Plight clearly couldn’t, and he seemed like he’d been doing this job forever… I pushed the thought away as the little girl spoke again.

“How’s the plant we gave you? Is it growing lots?” Plight avoided her gaze for a moment.

“A little…” He replied offhandedly. Luckily, the children didn’t have time to catch his timorousness before one of their gazes turned to me.

“Hey!” A boy with a record player for a head announced. “I didn’t know you had a friend!”

I waved at the group shyly, emerald feathers shifting.

“They’re not my friend.” Plight corrected, and I couldn’t help but feel a little stung by that. Sure, we only met like, yesterday, but I was friends with everyone back on the Glen. Then again, back home, pretty much anyone was called a ‘friend’ so long as you knew their name. But Plight continued, ripping me from my ruminations. 

“They’re just my co-worker.” He explained.

“Ooo! So they’re gonna stop here everyday now too?” The object-head beamed.

“Mhm.” Plight confirmed, picking up his pole back up again.

“That’s so cool!” Another of the children exclaimed, coming a little closer to me. I felt like an animal in a zoo being observed, but his genuine happy look of curiosity wasn’t too off-putting in the end.

“What’s your name?” The child asked excitedly.

“I’m y/n!” I replied. He giggled.

“It’s nice to meet you!” He almost yelled, before running back off the way he’d come. The gesture took me a little by surprise.

“Ky, wait up!” The object-head yelled, bolting after his friend. The girl gazed at the two, who were all but lost amidst the crowd now, and sighed. They were so tiny that the ocean of bodies seemed to swallow them up entirely. How they didn't get trampled, I'll never know.

“Sorry, I better go. It was nice meeting you, Mx. y/n!” Then she was gone too, leaving just me and Plight beneath the sprawling pink glow of the lamps.

“They’re sweet.” I concluded once all three. Plight sighed and slipped his pole into the loops on his back.

“They’re nice enough, yeah. No one else really wants to associate with me though, so I’m kinda waiting for the day they go that way too.” He said airily, making off into the alleyway. I followed him.

“Huh? Wait, really? But… I mean, why? You’re not dangerous - a-are you dangerous? Should I be concerned?” I added the last part hastily, worried I actually had met a kidnapper on my first day. Plight just chuckled, rounding a corner slowly.

“Nah, I’m just not what most people would call, I dunno, a ‘functional member of society’?” He didn’t seem upset, in fact he said it as though it were as uncommentable as as something like the weather report. I tried to imagine a world where no one on the Glen would talk to me, but it was too alien a thought to settle in my mind. It must be horrible... Hell, probably worse than horrible! It must feel like you're fading out of existence, like you're getting erased...

“But that doesn’t make any sense!" I announced after a moment. "You like, have a full-on job and everything! You’re so functional!” He chuckled at that as he came to a stop, getting to work replacing yet another lamp.

“Well, I appreciate your honesty. If I ever get to write another resume again, I'll make sure I'll tell everyone just how functional I am.” 

I leant against the wall, trying again to picture what Plight’s life looked like, almost completely isolated from everybody else, and fought the shivers that ran up my spine as a result. After a few minutes, he broke me from my thoughts.

“Don’t you have more stops still? I mean, it's barely noon and my shift lasts till nine. Don't tell me your hours are /this/ short?" I jumped away from the wall, feeling my feathers ruffle up.

“Oh! Yeah! S-sorry!” I patted down my clothes and brought out my map, checking my next stop. From beside me, the lamplighter laughed.

“Did you forget you had a job all of a sudden? You’re more of an airhead than I thought.” 

“I-I just got side-tracked talking to you, okay? You side-tracked me, it’s your fault really!” I chirped indignantly.

“Oh yeah? You should file a complaint about me to the Head Office. Bet that’d give 'em a laugh.” 

A moment of silence passed while I continued to check my map.

“Actually, please don’t do that.” The genuine concern in his voice was enough to make me giggle. He looked at me, confused.

“W-what?” He asked.

“Nothing.” I brushed him off, finally locating my next stop. I set off down the alleyway, smiling over my shoulder at him as I went.

“See you later, Plight.” I called.


End file.
